Which is november 1, 1955 to may 15, 1975 to stand and be recognized. Veterans as you exit the theater after todays program, National Archives staff and volunteers will present each of you with the vietnam veteran lapel pin. On the back is embossed a grateful nation thanks and honors you. United states vietnam war commemoration is a National Initiative and the lapel pin is the nations lasting thanks. The National Archives billing is always an impressive site, but this week we are attracting a bit more attention thanks to the North CarolinaVietnam Helicopter Pilots Association who are the custodians of those aircraft. We can see and learn about three original vietnam war helicopters. T this display is presented in part by the National Archives foundation through the generous support of Bell Helicopter. Now youll hear from general richard a. Cody, required of United States army. He graduated from west point in 1972. Hes a master army aviator, over 19 helicopter and has over 5,000 hours of flight time. During his 36 plus year of service, he served in six of the armys combat divisions. During operation desert storm, cody let task force norm di, a flight of eight apatchy helicopters into to iraq and destr destroyed them prior to the start of campaign. Cody is currently the Senior Vice President , the chairman of the borld for homes of our troops, board trustee of the intrepid Fallen Heroes fund, trustee of the Bob Hope Foundation and founder and lead pilot for operation flying heroes an organization that provides flights for our iraq and afghan wounded warriors. General cody received the United States military Academy Distinguished graduate award and george mar chal pastor award. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome general richard a. Cody. Thank you, everybody. For our Vietnam Veterans and their families, you know, sometimes saying thank you for your service isnt enough, and i want to tell you what i really want to do is say thank you for inspiring a young 16yearold from vermont vermont back in 1966, because i got to watch your vietnam helicopter pilots, daring on tv, and that inspired me to want to become like you, a helicopter pilot, and i was lucky enough to be able to achieve my dream, but more importantly, as soon as i graduated from flight school, it was hundreds of vietnam era warrant officers and colonels who taught me what right looked like. Taught me how to be an aviation leader and, quite frankly, i tell everybody i wouldnt have made general officer had it not been for my vietnam tutors, and so thank you for everything you have done for this great country. I also want to thank you because in 1991, when i came back from the iraq war, it was 3 00 in the morning. I had my squadron from the 101st. We landed in bangor, maine. We were some of the last guys out of iraq war. The first gulf war. We were watching on tv, waiting back at the airport in saudi arabia. We saw all the parades and everybody being welcomed home. My troops said, nobodys going welcome us. We got off the plane so they could refuel it and there was a cordonne of veterans thanking our hands and g. I. Ing myself a welcome home from combat you never got. Ill never forget watching young soldiers exchanging their sandy caps with the bush caps of the Vietnam Veterans. It touched many in a way youll never know. Our nation is well past that. This series about helicopters and those daring men that flew helicopters and their crews as part of vietnam series is something that all america should know about and we should take time to honor. Im very, very pleased the archives are doing that. What you all did in vietnam was really transform our army and our way of thinking about warfare in terms of 360degree battlefield. Today, many soldiers are alive from battles of iraq and afghanistan and other places that we have fought in because we learned from you the tactics, techniques and procedures of vertical lift and aviation in the ground regime, whether its medevac, ground transport, troop transport so we dont have to drive through ieds. We sent 7,000 uh1s to vietnam and over 1,000 op them got shot down. We sent 1,100 cobras into combat. Over 300 of those got shot down. Over 2,200 helicopter pilots, our fallen comrades, got shot down and paid the last, final salute to the United States and sacrifice to all of us. And we learned from all of that, and i think its fitting that we take time to understand the sacrifices of you guys and those who are over in Arlington Cemetery and how important it was the way you pioneered todays aviation force. In 1979, we had a hostage situation over in iran, and as you know, that didnt end well. But immediately there after we formed the 06th unit. It was Vietnam Veterans we called back to duty to form the little bird gun ship company, and it was again the vietnam veteran helicopter pilots we depended upon to get the tactics, tech neebs and procedures down so we could form the unit, which is today known as the Night Stalkers provoke the worlds best unit on aviation. Today youll hear from several of our vietnam helicopter pilotsful they all have Great Stories to he wille theyre all heroes in their own right, just like you. All heroes, great patriots but the other thing is theyre great brothers in arms. These guys have been together since vietnam. People forget its been over 50 years since we brought to huey and the cobra to vietnam so i think its fitting we hear from them today. Let me end by the way i started. Thanks for your service. I get asked a lot, what do we say to our veterans who have served and worn the uniform and donned the cloth of this nation. I tell america, saying thanks for your service is important, but if you really want to thank the men and women who have born the brunt of battle and especially our Vietnam Veterans what we really need do as americans is live our lives worthy of their sacrifice. God bless all of you, i hope you enjoy this event. Thank you. Thank you, general cody. Its now my pleasure to turn our program over the our moderator. Dwayne williams. Hes a decorated vietnam veteran and helicopter pilot. Graduated in 1966 and was assigned to the 175th Helicopter Company in vietnam where he served as gun ship pilot. After vietnam he was assigned to ft. Walters and served as a helicopter Instructor Pilot until his discharge in 1979. In he then began a 31 yearyear career as chief pilot and experimental test pilot for Bell Helicopter. First in iran and ft. Worth texas. Since retiring from bell, he kept flying helicopters and resides in arlington, texas with his wife of over 52 years. Please welcome Dwayne Williams and members of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association. [ applause ] good afternoon. Can you hear me . Thank you all for being here. Its certainly my pleasure being here this evening and i think its even more so a great honor to be here with these guys. When i was called, invited out here to participate. The first thing i did was check my size 40 flight suit i wore in vietnam. I think i could get one leg in it. But these guys maintain a strict regimen of workout and fit in their size 40 really good. My wife says, youre going look nice so she dressed me up and here i am. We do have a story today to tell, several stories. Before we get into that, i would like to introduce these guys. First of all, theyre from the North Carolina vhpa, Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association. Theyre the runs responsible for beautiful aircraft you see out front. They come all the way from North Carolina. They got here sunday night. They will be here through sunday and they have been standing out there every day, long days, take, care, answering questions and they do a great job, and i think i would like to give them a hand for that. [ applause ]. To my right here is joe dellfonto. Colonel United States army retired. He was colonel in 196. Commanding officer with the 604th transportation company, call signs, care takers. They provided maintenance for the 189 atth assault Helicopter Company, maintaining 28 to 30 aircraft. He had a heck of a job doing that. Sitting next to him is ed hughes, colonel, retired. Ed was in vietnam in 1971. He flew with the 116th, call sign, hornets. And he is a survivor of lansong 109. I dont know if you know that that is, but hes going to tell you about it. Then you have gary phillips. He flew in the 101st, and he also i think he flew hueys and then i think he also has an interesting story hes going tell us about flying a gun ship. Last but not least, we have jerry siegel. We are the only two that thought we would cast your fortunes as civilians. I dont know about me, but i think jerrys done pretty well. One of the things hes proudest of is he is the founding father of this group. And he has done a tremendous job f putting it all together and maintaining the aircraft. I know the work it takes. So i would like jerry to talk for just a minute about the unit. First off, i would like to thank the Archives Foundation and the staff here, Bell Helicopter and the l 2 technology for bringing us here to help honor the Vietnam Veterans. Back in 1989, 16 pilots gathered in greensburg, North Carolina to see if there was an interest in putting together a local organization where by helicopter pilots could get together, tell warstories, and i always say theres two things helicopter pilots dont do they dont drink beer and they dont tell war stories. Both of them are lies. And they dont lie. We started off with 16 people at about 9 00 in the morning and with two cases of beers, three dozen crispy cream donuts and a gallon of coffee, by 2 00 in thing afternoon, we had elected officers, written bye laws and set up to be incorporated. Luckily we had a lawyer present. Three months later after people decided we needed a helicopter to talk about, we decided we would go ahead and try to get a helicopter. This took three years to get our first aircraft. After we put this thing together and got it presentable. We went to will mington, North Carolina to do a parade. This was purely sell fish on our part was we wanted to ride if in a parade. We went through. Was putting the aircraft back together, next thing we knew, we had 150 people standing around the aircraft. We said, wait a minute, theres an interest in this. From there, we started to pursue other aircraft. We have six aircraft now. We do displays all up and down the east coast. We have done schools at no cost to students. We can take these aircraft to schools and not only their historical, as part of their education, but can relate the course of studies to the aircraft. It may be in doing this that some student decides what hes going to do. This is the third trip to washington, d. C. This year. This year we did our third president ial inaugural parade. We have told this is the most parades that an organization like ours has done in history. Hopefully well be around for another one. Well see. One of the things im most proud of of these guys is they put up with me. They go sometimes someplaces i wouldnt go with me. They put in long hours like theyre doing out here today. We are selfsupportive. We take no federal or state funding or no private sponsorship from the organizations. We have been doing this for 28 years and continue do this successfully. It can be done for organizations that are willing to put forth the effort. Thank you all for supporting us here. The photos, theyre really not relevant to what we are talking about, but theyre neat photos provided by Bell Helicopter so occasionally im going flip through here so you see something new. Might trigger one of us to oh, i got owe story for that. So occasionally youll see me flipping through this, but right now, ill turn it over to joe to talk about what it was like maintaining 30 aircraft in that situation. Thank you. Its a real honor and privilege for me to be here. I was a young brash lieutenant down at ft. Campbell, and gung ho. Just couldnt wait to get to vietnam. I wanted to be the greatest infantry platoon leader there ever was. Thankfully, god blessed me with a young lady that said, youre going flight school. I said,ky handle that. Off we went. Went to fix wing high school. Which was unusual because we needed helicopter pilots. Then to rotary maintenance and off to vietnam. I was confident i was going end up flying a u21. Twin engine, nice safe airplane, real high. No problems. Dream went kaput. I ended up at camp holloway. I took over the tc 104th attachment at probably the worst time in their history. I was talking earlier today to one of our guys. We got there both at the same time. And it seems like in the upon the or two before i got there, there was some pretty intense combat operations up through that area. And the 52nd baa tattalion, our Parent Organization had literally flew themselves into ground performing evacuation missions of all kinds. Long story short, when i arrived, our unit, which was 20 uh1s and 20 gun slicks had nothing fliebl. Our aircraft were chalk pull to have wholes. Down for maintenance, down for parts. I just want to sing a thank you and call out to the maintenance personnel that work behind the scenes over there. I had some of the best enlisted men in warrant officer that is i think this army ever saw. They were professional. They were dedicated. They were competent beyond belief. Maintenance guys are behind the scenes guys. You dont here a lot about them when you see the vietnam things and other documentaries and war stories, but let me tell you, maintenance is neverending. The uh1 a marvelous aircraft. Go to wikipedia and look it up and youll be blown away by what the aircraft can do. But it bring a lot of maintenance. Scheduled, unscheduled, combat problems to be repaired. We test influence airplanes after maintenance that we should not have. Sitting there half asleep in the cockpit to make sure everything was cool. Jerry was one of my test pilots. Enlisted guys, they turned to we got back to our mission required 12 slicks and six gun ships within about a month and it was only the dedication and the professionalism of the nco corps that did that. I had an infantry First Sergeant of all things in an Aviation Unit and he was a leaders leader. The ncos are the backbone of the army. This guy took these young men under his arm and trained them, brought them up the way they should be, made them love what they were doing. I had a technical instructor that grew up with the huey. He knew as much about the airplane as probably any bell engineer out there. I was blessed. I had the best warrant officers of the crop. One of my guys said he could do a rotation at night and land the thing in the dark on a dime. And they could, they were that good. So as i say, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We didnt have sundays or thursdays or whatever it was. We just fixed airplaning. They loved whatever they were doing and did it very well. One of the more exciting part offense that was recovering downed aircraft. And that ran the gamut. There were airplanes that got shot down that weld have to rig and pick up with a chinook or ukraine and bring it back so it could be salvaged to fly again. There were aircrafts that we had to fix on site. One of most exciting times i ever had was when i went up to a place that was a pretty hotly contested piece of ground and had an airplane that landed there, damage to the rotor blades and tail rotor. Director francis and i got dropped off on the ground at ben hat and spent the next two or three hours trying to do enough damage repair to bring that home. I went up on top putting duct tape on the rotor blades where the holes were and francis was replacing the tail rotor. Which is unheard of. Probably not another man would do that. Hes standing on a 50gallon drum. The bad guys started lobbing mortar shells into the base. Fortunately, they were on the other side. But it gets our attention. We get off the airplane and jump in ditch and hide. The gunfire would go away, and we would go do our thing. After the third it ration, i said to francis, i think theyre having more fun with us than anything else, we should finish up and get home. He said, good idea, lets go. Again, we cant give enough thanks to the young enlisted guys and the warrants that work sod hard. The other group that often gets overlooked and one i want to make a shoutout to is the wives and the families. We get all the glory, we get all the thank you for your service, but the wives and families left back in the United States waiting we didnt have cell phones. We didnt have any way to talk or communicate to them for the most part except letters and they were there. They were waiting. They didnt know where we were. We were too busy, honest to goodness to think about it. I never thought about dying or getting shot or killed. I didnt have time to think about that. I was if i can, aircrafts. But my wife did, and she was thinking about it every day. As did these guys wives and girlfriends and families. I just want to say a shoutout to them. They deserve our gratitude forever, and i thank you. Echoing joe, my young wife of four months dropped me off at ft. Walters, november 65, and last august we celebrated our 52 anniversary. And thats quite a feat, i think. Yes. Amen. But my wife, just like joe said, boy, we chose well. For all you wives up there, you get kudos, you really do. I know you go through, and wives suffered through. I know my wife woke up